Assignment No:01 Title: Solve the Ethical Dilemma

Course: Professional Ethics (SS-310)

Submitted to: Dr. Muhammad Zubair Khan

Submitted by: Wajiha Saleem

Registration no: B20F0134BMS011

Department of Biomedical Sciences

Pak-Austria Fachhochschule: Institute of Applied Sciences and

Technology

Mang, Haripur, KPK

Question:

Patients who have low literacy levels and do not know what documents they are signing in the
hospital. Should the nurse cause a delay in a busy surgical schedule to ask the surgeon to provide
additional information for the patient, or should the nurse go ahead and prepare the patient for
surgery to keep the busy surgical team on schedule?

As a professional, what would you do, or what will be your recommendation? You are expected
to exhibit loyalty to the ethical dilemmas using common ethical values and identifying possible
actions to be taken in response.

Answer:

Ethical Dilemma in this scenario

It is common for nurses to be the ones to get signatures on consent forms, especially for
procedures like the one described in this scenario (for surgery). When faced with a situation like
the one here when the nurse is not sure that the patient understands what he is being told or if he
can read, the decision of whether to delay a busy schedule to have the doctor come back and talk
to the patient or explain to the best of her knowledge and get the patient's signature may seem
difficult to make.

How to Deal with this Ethical Dilemma:

In my opinion it is the patient's right to learn more about the surgery or surgical procedure he/she
will be having before signing the documents. To the best of my understanding, the term
“deontology" derives from the Greek word "deon," which means "duty,". In
deontological ethics an action is considered morally good because of some characteristic of the
action itself, not because the product of the action is good. Deontological ethics holds that at
least some acts are morally obligatory regardless of their consequences for human welfare. So,
its doctor’s right duty to guide and provide information to their patients.
As a Professional Recommendation to this Situation

Accordingly, the nurse should delay the surgery schedule to ask the surgeon for additional
information for the patient. The language used in healthcare and on healthcare documents is
complicated to most patients. It can be even more challenging for patients with poor literacy
levels as mention in this scenario. Nevertheless, all patients have the right to be fully informed
about and understand treatment options and procedures before they are provided. It is always
right to err on the side of a patient's vulnerability. The nurse should give information to patient in
a manner that he/she can understand so that he/she can ask questions and decide whether to
consent to treatment or not. If the patient does not fully understand what the nurse is saying, the
nurse should notify the doctor and ask him to explain the procedure, including anticipated
outcomes and risks again.

Reference

(Duignan., 2022)
(Darby Faubion BSN, 2022)